Emma liked and loved so many things in Japan, that she couldn't even count them all. The beautiful cherry blossoms, the variety of food they serve, the rich culture, the advanced train system, and the heroes. But if she had to pick one thing that she absolutely loves… it would be, 100%... anime and manga.

Yes. Ever since she found a bookstore filled with strange black and white comics that you read backwards, she found herself addicted to them like a drug. It started as a hobby. But then she started to become invested in them and became hooked on different series. It almost scared everyone else about how obsessed she slowly became with them. 8/10 times a day, they would see her reading a manga or watching something on her phone. That was put to a stop however as Gilda banned electronics during mealtime. Well, with Emma's love for her family and wanting to spend her meal with them, it wasn't bad. But that doesn't mean she doesn't want to read the latest chapter of one of her favorite series either.

And one cannot forget the constant comments that the ginger kept on making, whether it was to herself or someone else. While her addiction wasn't as bad as many others, the rest of the group can agree that it was damn annoying.

"Ahh, how could they leave it on a cliffhanger like that?! I need Toyota and Neko to hurry up and make up!"

"Hey, Don! Did you catch up on Predator x Predator yet? It's one of my favorite series!"

"Yeah I did! I really liked it, but that clown gets on my nerves… the way he stares at those kids!"

"Emma. Don." Scarlett glared at them from across the dining table. "I don't mind you talking about your hobbies. But can you not talk about the gay clown that you have spoken about for the past week?"

'Where did we go wrong with Emma?' All of them sighed internally.

So, do pray tell, why on earth are Scarlett and Ray at an otaku shop? And on their date as well on a day that's was the perfect day to have one. Scarlett was wearing an icy blue chiffon blouse with bell sleeves that paired with a knee length lavender skirt and plain white tennis shoes. To create a better disguise, she had purple contacts on in order to match the outfit more as well as be able to style her hair differently for once. Ray wore a white T-shirt paired with an unzipped black jacket, dark blue shorts, and a pair of black tennis shoes. His hair was the usual mess of black that it was. He was never one for styling his hair. Plus, although Scarlett would never say it out loud, she really liked his messy style.

"Pleaaassseee?" Emma begged them when they were about to go out. "Just this once? I'll pay you guys back!"

"Can't you do it yourself, baka?!" Ray grouched as he accidentally switched to Japanese, repeatedly poking her harshly on the forehead. "Who asks someone to do an errand when they're going on a date?! Do you have any common sense?!"

"Why ask that anymore…" Scarlett sighed, refraining from hitting the ginger as well.

"I can't!" Emma pouted as she massaged her reddening forehead. "Gilda's making me stay home to help her with something! So I can't get the limited edition of the Beren figure from Strike on Giant that's supposed to come out today! If I go later, it's definitely going to be all sold out! It's a really popular series and they're not making any more of those figurines!"

"You and your weeb phase," Scarlett irked. "I'll never understand it."

"Pleeasssse?" The supposedly older female implored with her big emerald green eyes twinkling like a child who wants candy.

"That may work on Norman, but it's gonna take a lot more to shake us up." The ravenette looked down at the ginger with annoyance.

Emma grabbed her hands and leaned forward desperately. "What do I have to do in order for you to get the figure?"

Ray was looking at the time. It was getting late and they wanted to eat out. It wasn't as though they made some fancy reservation, but he still wanted to eat lunch on time. And seeing as though Emma was not going to budge on this issue…

"Fine. But you better do something for us afterwards," the male snapped impatiently.

"Yes!" Emma leaped up and hugged the both of them. "You two are the best!"

"Oi, Emma…"

The ginger suddenly felt a shiver down her spine. She slowly turned her head to see purple eyes flashing at her dangerously.

"Expect some extra training later."

Already, Emma was dreading the idea of extra training with Scarlett, who was the devil when it comes to training. This is what she is doing for you, Beren!

~0~0~0~0~0~

"The things we do for her…" Ray sighed loudly.

Scarlett wrapped her arm around his. "Well, even so, let's make the most out of this. It's been a while since our last date, and we'll be super busy here on out."

"I suppose," Ray agreed as he called a taxi. When they went in, he asked her, "Don't you feel uncomfortable wearing contacts though?"

"What do you mean? If you're talking about the green ones I used to wear-"

"I was talking about the fact that you only have… one eye," he whispered the last part. "You usually have it covered up, but now one side is extremely blurry, right? Isn't it extremely distracting?"

The ravenette shrugged. "Well, I can't deny that it's not very ideal. But…" She looked away with a blush. "I thought you might like this look."

Ray choked on his spit as he felt his ears grow hot. "U-um, it does…" He also turned away in embarrassment as he managed to mutter out, "...It does look good."

If there was one thing to say about this couple, it's that they are the most awkward people when it comes to anything romantic. At least, your usual romance, with the adoring comments, the gift giving, all of that lovey dovey stuff. From their point of view, strangers might see them as just friends or even siblings from how… not romantic they are on the outside. Even now, with Scarlett wrapping her arms around the other's arm, was a rare occurrence that only happens when she was especially clingy.

"Let's go to that restaurant that we saw on our last date," Scarlett suggested hastily. "What was it called again?"

"Oh, that new sushi place that opened up recently? Musutafu's Sushi Palace?" Ray recalled, speeding up his, and by extension, Scarlett's pace unconsciously.

She nodded. "I'm in the mood for some sushi. We've had too much meat lately."

It was a strange thing. She hated seafood with a passion growing up. It wasn't often that they had any sort of fish for a meal, but on those rare occasions, she would dread dinner that night. Even more so if it was her turn to prep it. The texture, the smell, all of it seemed disgusting to her. But then all the stuff with the demons happened. When they were looking for the Seven Walls, food was scarce quite a lot, even if they hunted for hours. They couldn't do anything about an ecosystem with little edible things. After experiencing true hunger for the first time, all of them had learned to appreciate every single morsel of food they got. And that was how slowly, Scarlett learned to like the dreaded seafood.

"I've heard good reviews from that place," Ray commented. "Apparently they have high standards with their dishes. They say that the food is triple checked before it goes out to the customers."

"Seems promising," she conceded.

As they entered the bustling sushi place, they were met with a lot of stares. Mostly from curiosity or even looks of interest. As usual, the two of them ignored their eyes, minding their own business. At the moment the two of them somehow found an empty table, a waiter immediately was there to take their order.

"Welcome, miss and sir," the white haired waiter greeted politely. "What would you like for today?"

"Hm…" Ray looked at the menu they laid out. It was packed full of different sushi, appetizers, refreshments, and even desserts, which could be taken to go. He took a peek at Scarlett, who too seemed to be uncertain about what to get.

"We'll have a sushi platter," he decided. "Fill it up with your most popular foods."

The waiter nodded once. "That can be arranged. Would you like anything else?"

"I'll have a melon soda," Scarlett ordered. "Just fill it up with ice, no cream. I'll save that for dessert."

"Then I'll just take a ginger ale," Ray said. "And the spring roll appetizers."

"Excellent choices. Your order will be made readily." The waiter bowed and left with the order to go to the kitchen.

.

.

.

'Order be made readily my ass,' Scarlett grumbled to herself. It's been over 30 minutes since the waiter had left with their order. And there was still no sign of their food coming out. It did look like a busy day, but to not even have the appetizers done…

"I'm going to the restroom," she announced. "I'll be right back."

As she walked towards said room, she felt someone bump into her suddenly, giving her a sense of deja vu from when Hagakure did the same thing. This time though, it wasn't the invisible girl.

"Ah!" It was one of the waitresses. She was a purple haired girl with big, innocent-like green eyes. The strange thing was that she was wearing a mask. Well, it's actually not that strange. It was allergy season, after all. "S-sorry about that!" The girl hastily grabbed her dropped notepad and scurried off towards the kitchen.

"Um… you forgot your nametag..." Scarlett stared at the girl's retreating back in confusion. 'Well, it's her loss. I'll try to give it back to her before we leave.'

After using the toiletries, the ravenette came back to the table with no difficulties. "They still don't have the food ready?"

Ray's thoughts seemed to be on the same wave as hers, seeing his clearly irritated expression as well as his foot tapping. "Tch, this is getting annoying. If they don't come out here soon, I might just walk out."

As if on queue, the white haired waiter came out of the kitchen, balancing out two trays. One with the sushi and appetizers, and the other one with their refreshments.

"I apologize for the long wait," he said apologetically as he set the food down. "Please enjoy our gourmet food."

As soon as the man left, Ray snorted out, "Well, at least we don't have to check for raw food, considering most of this is raw sushi."

"You're so funny," Scarlett deadpanned, reaching for a nigiri with her pair of chopsticks. "Anyways, I'm starving." She plopped the sushi in her mouth with one bite. Her eyes widened slightly at how much flavor it had. It was strangely addicting.

Ray too took a bite of a tuna roll and was also surprised by the taste. "Huh. Well, at least the food seems to be good."

"I should think so, considering how long we waited," Scarlett muttered.

They continued to slowly eat through their food, enjoying each taste and texture the platter had to offer. All while striking up a light conversation. These were the moments that Scarlett liked the most about their relationship. Despite them knowing each other for their entire lives, it always seems like she ends up learning something new about Ray every single time they hang out. It was like a never ending puzzle that she could just continue to piece together one part at a time.

Just as they had finished ordering their dessert of taiyaki filled with vanilla bean custard, the ravenette heard a few voices that made her pause in shock for a few moments. She slowly turned around, unsure if what she heard was correct.

"Man, we've been waiting outside for almost an hour!" Kaminari complained. "My legs are so sore from standing up!"

"I guess that's what you get when you go in during lunch hour," Sero shrugged in reply.

Kirishima grinned, putting an arm around the other two. "Look on the bright side, at least we're finally in now! There's still a long line outside, so we should just take it!"

Scarlett felt her eye twitch uncontrollably. 'You have got to be shitting me…'

Her partner noticed her change in attitude. "What's wrong?"

"Some of my classmates… are here. We gotta hurry up and get out of here." She grabbed one of the taiyaki the waiter had just dropped off and took a large bite.

"Woah, slow down, or you'll choke, idiot!" Ray scolded, grabbing her wrist. He immediately let go though, realizing how wrong it would look, should someone see. "Anyways, what's so bad about them being here? Just mind your own business."

"I can do that, but they can't!" Scarlett hissed impatiently, taking another bite. She grabbed her phone in her other hand, standing up. "You know what, we've paid the bill already. We can just head out. Let's go."

Ray sighed, also standing up. "Ok, if you say so." 'I guess I wouldn't want to be stuck with a bunch of chatters either. Especially on a date.'

As the two of them left their table and headed for the exit, there was a sudden commotion that seemed to grab the attention of the entire restaurant.

"Oi, there's a fly in my food here," a man in his mid twenties complained to a waitress, the very same one that bumped into Scarlett. He and his other friends were smirking arrogantly. "What a shame too. We've been waiting ages for our food to arrive and this is the food we received. How are you guys going to take responsibility for this?"

'How shameless!' Ray glared at the man with a punchable face. 'The food we received was just fine! You're just making a big commotion!'

Unfortunately, it appears that this waitress was on the shy end of the spectrum. "I-I'm sorry, sir. We'll g-get you a new dish. So please w-wait just a bit-"

"Hah?" The man looked at her with an annoyed expression. "Are you kidding me? You think that this could be swept over like that? What if I got sick from that fly?"

"U-um, well…"

"That poor girl," a nearby customer whispered. "My food was just fine. He probably just put that fly in his food to get a free meal."

"Should we call the police?" Another person whispered.

"Hey, for someone that's so muscular, that's not a manly thing to do at all!" Kirishima yelled loudly, clenching a fist.

The man looked at the redhead and scoffed. "Buzz off, kiddo. There's no need for your intervention."

"And I say it is!" Kaminari retorted indignantly. "That's not cool man! Trying to avoid paying a bill by framing the restaurant? If you didn't want to pay, then you shouldn't have come here in the first place!"

"Yeah, you're just making a mess! Some of us just want to eat!" Sero added. "You're just being a nuisance!"

Now the man was getting ticked off. He slowly stood up. "Look here, you little brats! What's it to you anyways? It doesn't have shit to do with you! And what are you going to do anyways, huh? Take a swing? My buddy over there is recording all of this! What do you think the police are going to say when they see that video?"

"Get out of here kid. You trying to be some hero or something?" The goonie who's recording with his phone gave a shit eating grin.

Kirishima glared angrily, beginning to stomp forward. "Why you-"

"Wow, I guess there are people who got muscles for brains," Scarlett said loftly, suddenly standing next to the three male students. She had spoken in a heavy and rich accent so that her fellow classmates would not recognize her. "Who would have thought that such a stereotype would actually exist?"

'Huh?' Ray's eyes widened at the empty spot that his girlfriend was supposed to be.

'Who's that?' Sero looked sideways at the newcomer. 'She looks really pretty, but also familiar somehow…'

"Tch, what's with all these idiots trying to get in my business?" The man was now getting heated as the chopsticks he was holding began to bend from the pressure in his hand. 'Although, she's not half bad looking. I don't mind trying to cop a feel…'

"Get out of here before I kick your ass to the curb," Scarlett said bluntly. Everyone else in the restaurant was gaping at the crude language this almost posh-looking girl was spewing out with no hesitation.

"Hah? What makes you think you can boss me around?" The man stood up and leaned towards Scarlett, who was looking at him with a bored expression. "I don't mind a girl who likes to take charge though…"

Kaminari moved forward. "Hey, get away from the lady, you creep! That's disgusting!"

"What say you, girl? If you'd like we could meet up sometime and-"

"Sorry, I'm taken," Scarlett scowled at his efforts. "Besides, I'm not into a cheating fetish. Although you might be. I'm not one to judge though."

The blonde man looked at her in confusion for the first time. "Oi, what do you mean?"

The ravenette jerked her head towards the waitress, who jumped in surprise, nearly dropping her notepad for jotting down orders.

"She's your girlfriend, isn't she? You two are trying to take advantage of the rule of getting a free meal, should there be something wrong with your food."

Whispers spread throughout the place, looking back and forth between them. The three male students were also shocked by this new revelation.

"H-huh?" The waitress stared at her in confusion, denying it. "B-but I've never met this man in my entire life!"

"The bowl of the miso soup that the fly was in looks untouched," Scarlett observed, picking it up with a sound of protest from the man. She then gingerly picked up the dead fly. "And judging from the steam, it was just brought out. The fly was just floating on top of the soup, right? So… why did none of the staff notice it? Even if this waitress here did not notice the fly, the food here is said to be triple checked. Someone else was bound to find it before it was sent out. And since it wasn't… it had to be in there afterwards."

The waitress stuttered at all the eyes looking at her. "I-I would never do such a thing! It's more likely that it flew in by chance!"

"Sure, but I was already suspicious of you anyways," Scarlett replied.

"What… Do you mean?" There could now be a bit of hostility seen in her green eyes.

The ravenette leaned forward a bit to see her nametag. "Ah, your name was Yuki? What a nice name."

"Huh? Why are we suddenly giving out compliments to the accused?" Kaminari asked in confusion, looking back and forth. He felt one step away from shortfusing.

"But…" Scarlett's tone took on a fake and sickly sweet sound. "I was so sure that your name was… Aiya." She held the name tag that the waitress had dropped earlier.

"T-That…" Her voice faltered her as she failed to find an excuse for that.

"She used a fake name tag?!" Sero exclaimed loudly, completely blindsided by yet another plot twist. "But that could only mean…"

"That she never even worked here in the first place," Scarlett concluded. "As for where she got the uniform… she probably swiped it from a person she knew that actually does work here. With or without consent is unknown. You have several name tags because you could confuse the police with your identity in case someone caught on. And the mask was a good disguise, making everyone else think that you had allergies while also hiding some of your big features.. Man, talk about so much effort for just one free meal. You were trying to play the innocent and jittery victim, right? And then give into the free meal out of pressure."

The man had just about enough of this. "WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST GIVE OUT ALL THESE RIDICULOUS REASONINGS ALL WILLY NILLY?!" He grabbed her wrist with a vice-like grip.

Kirishima immediately started forward. "Get your hands off-!"

The ravenette held a hand in front of him, signaling him to back off. She then leaned towards the man and whispered softly so that no one else could hear, "I'm sure you're not in it just for a free meal. You may be stupid, but you're the greedy type of stupid. There must be something more that you get. I've been hearing that a bunch of sushi places have been struggling because of the popularity of this place. Did they hire you to ruin their reputation so that they lose customers? How much did they pay you that you would actually consider doing this?"

The blonde looked at her with wide eyes, disbelieving of how this random girl had figured them out completely with just simple deduction. He protested weakly, "W-what makes you think-"

His words died out as he stared into her purple eyes that were so cold, it made you want to just back away in fear. They were unmoving and piercing, as though they could see every single detail and secret you have.

"Give up," the girl suggested, bringing her voice back to a normal volume. "You're just embarrassing yourselves at this rate. Your buddy's video won't do anything either."

"What do you-" His blood ran cold as he followed her gaze to a black haired kid, holding out his own phone and recording. Don't tell him that they were recording since the girl began deducting all of this!

"Well? Who do you think the police would believe more? You, or me?" Her eyes grew more intense, if it was possible. He was the one who was clenching her wrist, but it felt as though she were a snake that had ensnared his entire body. "Would you like to take that risk? I don't mind."

Slowly, the grip on the wrist weakened as he backed off with a stagger. "L-let's just get out of here."

"But sir!" One of the goonies protested.

"I SAID WE'RE LEAVING!" He shouted, leaving for the door.

Making sure to rub salt in the wound just for kicks, (god, she really is becoming a sadist…), Scarlett called out, "Make sure you pay for your meal! And take your trash out with you. This is a restaurant you know. It needs to be kept up to proper standards." She pointed to the 'waitress'. A few people began giggling at that.

Yuki… or Aiya? It doesn't matter. She blushed out of anger and glared at the ravenette. But she let herself be dragged away by her boyfriend. He slammed money into a nearby waiter's chest and their group walked out of the door with a slam.

As soon as they left, the sound of applause reverberated throughout the room. Scarlett felt her cheeks growing hot at the standing ovation she was receiving. So much for getting out of here quickly. It really pissed her off though. And especially since that waitress was far too suspicious as well.

"Hey, that was so cool!" Kirishima's eyes were shining in admiration. "You handled that in such a manly way, even though you're a girl! Not that girls can't be manly of course!"

"Um, yeah." Scarlett slowly edged away, and then quickly moved towards the exit.

"Hey, what's your name-" Kaminari was cut off as she had walked out already by then.

Sero looked a bit disappointed. "I wonder if we'll see her again…"

Sighing, she walked over to a nearby bench and sat down with a huff. This day was already so exhausting.

Soon after, Ray had also walked out. After spotting her, he immediately strided over and gave her a good bonk on the head. "Idiot! What were you thinking!? You were lucky that I knew that you wanted me to record the thing. What if I hadn't gotten the message?"

"Gee thanks," Scarlett said sarcastically. "I only intervened because it was annoying how those people were trying to cash in on a free meal. And their food was really good so I figured I would return the favor. And I knew you would understand. It was common sense to record the whole thing anyways."

He sighed for a good ten seconds, before abruptly pulling her up. "Well, let's just enjoy the rest of today."

~0~0~0~0~0~

The rest of the date had gone without any more interruptions. They had ice cream while walking through the park and renting out a swan boat on a lake. There were also a few different stores they went into that looked interesting. But throughout the entire day, it felt as though they were forgetting something…

"That was fun," Scarlett remarked, leaning against the male. "I had a good time today."

"Me too," Ray agreed. "Although I just can't help but think I'm forgetting something…"

"You too?" She looked at him in surprise.

"Wait, you also felt that way?" He now looked worried. "Now I'm thinking we really did just forget something…"

Just as they were frantically thinking about it, a kid nearby was running towards his friends. "Hey, my mom got me the Beren figure I wanted!"

The couple gasped at the same time, looking at each other in shock. "Emma's request!"

"Dammit," Ray cursed under his breath. "We got to find one, quickly!" It wasn't that the ginger would throw a fit, once she figured out that they didn't get it. It was the feeling of guilt that would come.

"I'll go right, you go left!" Scarlett straightened up like a pole while running in said direction. "Keep me on the phone!"

"Any luck?" Ray asked through his phone as he asked a store employee at a nearby manga store.

"No," Scarlett sighed in aggravation, getting a similar answer from an employee at a different store.

"There's nothing in Aniworld," Ray's voice came through the phone after a little while.

"Not in Anime Republic either," Scarlett revealed with frustration.

After a while of searching, they somehow got to speaking to each other in an army sort of manner. They were getting desperate now.

"Section 12, nothing here, over," Ray reported.

"Section 7, same here, over," Scarlett said afterwards.

.

.

.

"This is it, the last store," Scarlett breathed out, tired from all the movement.

"Please don't make us go home and have to face a sad Emma," Ray prayed quietly.

They both entered in with apprehension. There weren't a lot of people since the store was closing soon. Most were in line for checkout. The two of them dispersed to look through all the aisles and shelves for that one gosh darn Beren figure.

"Nothing?" Scarlett asked.

Ray shook his head in defeat. "Nothing. Let's just ask the clerk."

They both waited in line. There were three people in front of them. A teenage girl with a stack of mangas in her hands, a middle aged man with a magical girl figure that was hopefully for someone much younger, and a male who looked to be in college that looked to be quite impatient with a large amount of figures and manga in what looked to be in his own bag. And when it was finally their turn, they asked the man if they had any of the Beren figures. Supposedly, there was said to be one more, but after looking through their shelves and even the storage, none was to be found. All the employee could do was look at the two of them apologetically.

"Is that so?" Ray said in disappointment, but there was also something else in his tone that Scarlett couldn't quite comprehend. "Well, thanks for your effort." He handed the employee a rather generous tip, surprising the other two.

And with that, the two of them walked out of the store, which had closed at that very moment. The ravenette was looking dejected.

Scarlett sighed once again. "At least we tried… I'm not looking forward to looking at Emma's face during dinner tonight."

When Ray didn't respond, Scarlett looked at him in slight concern. "Ray?"

She followed his eyes towards the college boy that was in the store with them earlier. He was getting on a bike, looking rather unsteady as he tried to balance the large bag of items he had purchased.

As the male had finally managed to get his stuff under control, he began peddling in the same direction that the two of them were.

Looking at Ray's eyes, she immediately understood what he wanted to do. So as the man rode his bike just past them, Scarlett whipped out her arm as fast as lightning and grabbed the man's arm. The action caused his peddling to immediately seize to move as well as his bag falling onto the ground in a heap.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing-?!"

Ray had leaned down and reached into the bag for the Beren figure that was hiding at the center of all the things that the man had purchased. "How strange. This clearly came from this store right here. But I didn't even see you pay for it. The clerk clearly remembered he had one more in stock as well… you couldn't have stolen it, right?" He ended his sentence in a mocking way.

'...He and I really are too similar in how we like to egg on people.' Scarlett looked at her boyfriend with an amused but tired expression.

The black haired male leaned towards the college student that was gaping from his spot on the ground. He muttered quietly, "If you don't want to be in handcuffs, you'll let us walk away with the figure without a single word. Ok?"

The man nodded hastily, grabbing the rest of his fallen items and putting them into his bag again with fumbling hands. He jumped onto his bike and peddled away not looking back even once.

Scarlett shook her head. "Jeez, I can't believe we've met another stupid person. That's why you gave the clerk such a handsome tip, wasn't it?"

Ray was whistling as he tucked the newly obtained figure under his arm. "Well, I knew the store would be closing afterwards and I'm not a thief. Plus that guy looked mighty suspicious. You're not the only one who could use deduction."

"I suppose not," she snorted. "Let's go home, before you actually steal something, huh?"

His eyes softened as he leaned in for a kiss unexpectedly, leaving her flustered and red. "Yeah. Let's go."

Author's Note:

Sorry for the late update! It's currently 10:37 PM right now. I really wanted to get this chapter done and not make you guys wait again.

This extra chapter was something that I was slowly working on overtime, and had decided to just write like 10 pages today, haha. The reason why I was desperately working to get this side story finished for the new update was because this takes place right after chapter 5. If you guys were wanting a chapter 6, I apologize for the wait. In the meantime, I hope this chapter will appease you.

As I've mentioned, I wanted to do a side story with just Scarlett and Ray having a date. They haven't had too many interactions so far in the story, so I thought it'd be a great opportunity to really bring out their relationship. If you're reading my Crimson Roses remake on AO3, I'm also trying to improve the story there as well. And that will include their relationship, because I feel like it was very flat.

Thank you all for the support on this series. It really means a lot to me. It's honestly been an extremely stressful time for me right now and finding the time to write has been difficult. But seeing you guys enjoy my work makes me feel better. Thank you and I hope I can continue to do so.